No sooner the first NAVTEX signaling a concerted plan of provocations in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone expired, Ankara issued a second Navigation Telex notifying the apathetic world that it is here to stay – audaciously seeking to block waters even closer to the southern coast of the Republic of…

Exactly three years ago, in October 2011, my phone rang at my antique maps gallery-cum-office. At the other end of the line was Dr Gregory Reichberg, an American seasoned researcher, a dear colleague then Director of the PRIO Cyprus Centre. Already at my time at the UN University HQ Tokyo…

Regrettably, the West stubbornly maintains a unilateral position on the Syrian conflict. Hence the chances of its resolution become minimal. As the conflict enters its third year, the regime of Bashar al-Assad seems to be enjoying the support of the majority of the Syrian people and is not going to…

Written by Dr Yiorghos Leventis* One thing is for sure: the Eastern Mediterranean is going through interesting times. Historically, I guess, we have always been living in such times. The Mediterranean, as the etymology of the geographical name denotes, constitutes the middle of the earth, the place where multiple…

Written by Dr William Mallinson With the desperate bombing of Libya eventually petering out, I think it unlikely that the exporters and imposers of western freedom will try and attack Syria, for the following reasons. First, Turkey will not countenance the idea, since its Kurdish population would immediately latch on…

Written by Mr. Simon Bahceli* Tens of thousands of mainland Turks could soon become new ‘citizens’ of the breakaway north, according to critics of an “immigration regulation” approved by the Turkish Cypriot ‘council of ministers’ yesterday. Although details of the regulation were yet to be made public, the north’s…

Written by Mr. Vercihan Ziflioğlu* Turkey's Syriac community, who adopted Turkish surnames, now want their original surnames back. Yet, a top court says that the laws don't allow such a move. Members of Turkey's Syriac Christian community are leading a legal struggle to adopt last names that reflect their identity…

During the last months, a strengthening in European public dialogue, an intense cultivation of views and recommendations in reference to the future of security in Europe and East Mediterranean have emerged. In most European countries this pubic dialogue is in progress something of course that does not occur in Greece…

There are two Dolphin-type Israeli submarines in service. The first is patrolling in the Mediterranean and the second in the Persian Gulf. The submarine in the Persian Gulf, according to expert Bharat Karnad (Research Professor in National Security Studies, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, member of the First National…

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the subsequent reunification of Germany were followed by the quick dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Mikhail Gorbachev timely withdrew his support from the collapsing GDR. In June 1989, the former Soviet leader stated in Bonn, where he received a rapturous…